7 Reasons Your Dental Practice Needs a Postage Metered Mail Machine

Between sending out invoices, advertisements and letting patients know their appointments are coming up, your practice probably spends a good chunk of change.

But you need to send the mail out. So how can you save money?

Well, you could consider using a postage meter machine that could potentially save your office thousands of dollars.

In this article, we’ll go over some of the pros of having metered mail in your office and why you should consider it as a solution.

1. Metered Mail Saves You Money

This is probably the biggest reason people choose to rent postage meters. It saves you quite a lot of money, especially if you sort the mail yourself.

If you meter and presort 500 letters per month, you could save your office an average of $59.50 a month.

For a high volume dentist office, you could save $5,950 a month if you send out 50,000 or more letters or packages per month.

Of course, your volume depends on how big your practice is. While it may not yet be practical for a tiny dental office, it certainly is for a well-established one.

2. It Looks More Professional

Metered mail stamps the letters itself. There is no need for anyone in the office to have to sit there and add stamps one-by-one to everything you’re mailing out. With a sleek and professional label, your patients might find your office just a bit more trustworthy.

3. It Makes Accounting Easier

Postage meters have spending features built-in. This means you can easily keep track of how much you’re spending on postage.

In most cases, postage meters have software that allows you to export this information to your computer. This means you can keep track of where your money is going without having to reconcile it in a more difficult manner.

If you send someone to the post office once a week to drop off patient mail, they will have to then take a detailed receipt to whoever is working at your office’s finances.

With a postal meter, you’ll skip the middleman and export it straight to your accountant.

4. It Provides Better Security

When you send items in the mail, you don’t always know if they made it to their destination. We always hope they will, but stamps can fall off and items can get damaged in transit.

While metered mail does not guarantee your item won’t get lost in transit, it does make it easier to track. Many postage meters come with increased security that allows you to see where everything is via the accompanying software. If an important letter doesn’t turn up where it is supposed to, you’ll have more ability to discover where it actually went.

You’ll also know that your stamps won’t get damaged in the mail, as they’re printed directly on the letter or package.

5. It Gets to Your Patients and Recipients More Quickly

Mail from a postage meter actually gets to your recipient more quickly than it would otherwise. This is because all metered mail is high-priority. When it arrives at the post office, you’ve already completed most of the steps needed to send the item.

As a result, the post office doesn’t need to do anything but put the items in the mail. This saves them steps and saves you time.

If you presort your mail, it can go through even more quickly. This saves your post office even more steps than simply using the machine alone.

In point number three, we discussed accounting and how metered mail makes accounting much more simple. This is also the case when it comes to petty cash.

If you send someone to the post office regularly, they will have to carry petty cash or your company credit card on them. This takes time out of their day but also means you’ll have to account for all of the cash they take.

It could also cause issues if a credit card is lost or stolen. It can take days to rectify this, which can put a halt on business or spending for your practice.

With metered mail, you don’t have to worry about any of these issues. Everything you spend is right in front of you.

It can also cut down on the possibility of employee theft, as no one will be responsible for shuttling a credit card outside of the office.

7. You Can Refill Postage without Leaving the Office

If you find yourself trying to complete a project at 3 AM on a Tuesday morning and you run out of postage, that’s not an issue. With a postage meter, you can refill your postage online or via the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This will save on trips to the post office, and won’t put a dent in your work groove. Your mail will still be ready to go out the next morning, even if you ran out of postage that evening.

If you think a postage meter would be a useful asset to your company, read more info here.

Ready to Think About Getting a Postage Meter?

As postage meters are considered currency, you can’t actually buy one for your practice. However, you can rent one for your metered mail needs. The cost will be largely dependent on what is the most practical for your office. However, anyone who spends $50 or more a month on postage will likely find it a useful investment.